John_Park_LMF

//Learning Motivation and Fun//


What are your 5 generalizations?
Comparing high usage of humor to none used, the data shows that humor was progressively more important in the older age groups than the younger until the age group of 50 and above. In the age group of 2-9, only one case reported using a lot of humor while 4 reported no humor was present in their learning experience. The number of cases using a lot of humor was higher for the group between 10-19, with the ratio being 11 to 10. In the videos, the learners seemed to be more fascinated with the topic rather than the manner it was presented. For Arvick155, learning how to dance was a fun learning experience since it allowed her to “express through [her] body, the enjoyment of music.” For Ryan173, it was his want to do the trick using the skateboard that drove him on. For the age group of 10 to 19, even when the topic was not inherently exciting, such as learning the vocabulary (Denise170, Kyle157) or Philosophy (Sam121), the teacher’s use of humor made it a fun experience. This finding indicates to me that use of humor, especially in face to face environment, would be appropriate for older audiences.
 * 1. ****Use of humor is more important for pre-teen/teenagers than learners under the age of 10.**

This generalization proved to be incorrect. Comparing the two genders between the age of 10 to 19, more male learners (65%, 13 out of 20) indicated that the importance of competition in their learning experience was minimal than the female learners (39%, 9 out of 23) reporting the same. For Brian71, it was learning how to play the Bass drum with other students and the challenge that made it fun. For Raul194, learning how to play the guitar was fun since it “allowed [him] to be more creative.” Looking at this statistic, unless there is a concrete benefit that competition can bring to teaching the students, competition itself won’t create fun learning experiences.
 * 2. ****Pre-teen and teenage males enjoy competition with peers in learning more than the female counterpart.**

Out of the 23 cases reported about work related learning, no case dealt with purely abstract content and only 8.7% (2 out of 23) cases reported that their learning experience dealt with somewhat abstract content. More cases (8 of 23) had concrete content in their learning event. However, the generalization didn’t take account of the importance of mixed curriculum of both concrete and abstract content. For both videos that talked about somewhat abstract content, there were clear links to the topic that the learner saw. Justin67’s video talked about how he saw “enormous benefits” in adding abstract improvisation in his acting class. For Lisa51’s corporate training class, the instructors linked how the fish velocity connects to what they would do at work. This finding suggests that when using an abstract content, the instructor needs to clearly show the how the abstract content links to the concrete work.
 * 3. ****Concrete content is preferred over abstract content for work related learning.**

Out of 23 cases for work related learning, almost half of the cases (11 out of 23) reported that there was a lot of peer interaction while only 3 cases showed that there was no interaction with the other learners. In the videos, Beatriz83 mentioned “celebration of accomplishment by the team” made the learning event more enjoyable. Jared22 highlighted the importance of cooperation in peer interaction when he described how “different activities took advantage of different skills” which resulted in a training experience the group still talks about 4 years after it took place. Such disparity between the numbers reported for a lot of peer interaction and no peer interaction suggests that some aspect of peer interaction should be strongly considered for work related learning event.
 * 4. ****Peer interaction is important for work related learning.**

Comparing the number of cases where more than 80% of the education environment was controlled by the learner, 30% of male learners (22 out of 72) indicated that they were largely in control of the environment compared to 18% (16 out of 89) of female learners. For Nate73, it was the freedom that he had in learning how to cook as he was able to “try new recipes and try them out whether or not they come out [well].” In another case, Manuel90 loved his learning experience using an online video tutorial since it allowed him to “focus on the items [he] really needed to learn.” However, this generalization does not really give any clear implications for my own teaching and design work; looking through the videos of female learners who enjoyed having control of the learning environment, the reasons why they enjoyed it was the same as the male counterpart (Stacy161, Kenisha159). One lesson I was able to glean was that especially in a digital format, the learners expect to have full control on what lessons they have access at all times.
 * 5. ****Control over learning environment would be more important for males than females.**